Utah vs Florida Opening Odds – Utes Small Road Favorites Over Gators in Week 1

• No. 7 Utah travels to Florida in the season opener for both Saturday
• The Utes opened as 2.5-point favorites over the Gators in Week 1
• Read below for the full opening odds and projected line movement

No. 7 Utah is a 2-point favorite over host Florida in the season opener for both in Gainesville at 7 pm ET Saturday, September 3rd on ESPN. The Utes were 7-7 ATS while winning the Pac-12 championship in 2021, covering seven of their last 10.

Former Louisiana coach Billy Napier was hired to replace Dan Mullen following the Gators’ second-half collapse in 2021, when they were 2-5 SU and 0-7 ATS after a 42-0 victory over Vanderbilt on Oct. 9.

Utah vs Florida Opening Odds

Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook on Aug. 27.

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Utah Enters on a High

The Utes are the highest-ranked team in the Pac-12, are favored to repeat in the Pac-12 South and are a dark-horse candidate in the National Championship odds after blowing through the conference a year ago.

The Utes took off when junior Cameron Rising cemented himself as the starting quarterback following a 1-2 start that included losses to arch-rival BYU and Mountain West West division champion San Diego State.

Just a reminder that @Utah_Football OC @Coach_Ludwig is one of the most underrated offensive minds in #collegefootball. It has hard to be good and it is really, really hard to be good for two straight decades. pic.twitter.com/QPFo7PM79n

— SportSource Analytics (@SportSourceA) August 22, 2022

Utah won nine of its final 10 regular-season games, decisively trouncing North winner Oregon 38-7 late in the regular season and again 38-10 two weeks later in the Pac-12 title game. Ohio State scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to get past the Utes 48-45 in the Rose Bowl.

Rising threw only five interceptions in 320 attempts a year ago and the Utes’ defense ranked 27th in the FBS.

Florida Got Its Man

The Gators targeted Billy Napier to replace Mullen after Napier’s strong run at Louisiana, although the NCAA strength of schedule rankings indicates a steep climb ahead. The Rajun’ Cajuns were 34-5 SU, 21-18 ATS since 2019 and beat Marshall 36-21 in the New Orleans Bowl for a 13-1 finish last year, although Napier already had joined the Gators by then.

Napier rode efficient quarterback Levi Lewis (8,241 passing yards, 65  touchdowns, 15 interceptions) to great success in Lafayette the last three seasons and and will try to find the same level of consistency from Gators’ athletic sophomore quarterback Anthony Richardson.

Napier on Anthony Richardson: “Everyone wants to put a crown on his head, he’s completed 33 passes in his career. The greats at the University of Florida complete 33 in a game.”

Says Richardson rises to the occasion. Has been pleased with his progression.

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) August 21, 2022

Richardson, 6’4, 236, was up-and-down as a reserve to transfer Emory Jones a year ago, and his first and only career start was not a fair fight, a 34-7 loss to No. 1 Georgia on Oct.  30. Richardson passed for 82 yards, rushed for 26 and had three turnovers, two interceptions, in a 12-play span of the second quarter.

Injury Update

The Gators will be without No. 2 quarterback Jack Miller III, a redshirt freshman transfer from Ohio State who underwent right thumb surgery in mid-August. Jalen Kitna and Kyle Engel will back up Richardson.

Expected Line Movement

The Utes opened as 2.5-point favorite and there is still some 2.5 out there, although most  of the line movement has been on the point total. The game opened at 53 last week before the total was bet down to 50.5 before settling at 51.

Top active coaches' bowl game winning percentage w/at least 6 bowl wins

Hugh Freeze 86% (6-1)
Jimbo Fisher 80% (8-2)
Kyle Whittingham 79% (11-3)
Paul Chryst 75% (6-2)
Mike Gundy 67% (10-5)
Nick Saban 63% (17-10)
Mack Brown 61% (14-9)
Todd Graham 60% (6-4)
Dabo Swinney 59% (10-7)

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 21, 2021

Utah, stuck in the Mountain time zone and saddled with a horrible TV deal that kept it all but invisible on the national stage, has been consistently undervalued while going 33-14 SU in the last four seasons, a run that has them listed as the sixth choice in the college football playoff odds.

Recent performance says the line should move in Utah’s favor, even in the Swamp, where the Gators have won 32 straight home openers (most against cupcakes). Utah is 7-2 SU and 7-1-1 ATS in road openers since 2013, while Florida was 3-10 ATS in 2021 and failed to  cover its final seven, including losses to South Carolina and Missouri and a bowl loss to Central Florida. The Utes were 7-3 ATS in their last 10 after Rising took over last season, 3-2 ATS in COVID-shortened 2020 and 9-5 ATS in 2019.